FORT SMITH -- City directors are considering how to best address stray cats and dogs and how to keep them from running at large across the city.
The directors held a study session Thursday to discuss whether to amend the city's pet licensing ordinance or create any other ordinances to address the issue.
Deputy City Administrator Jeff Dingman said the problem of stray animals in the city has been an issue for over a decade, leading to the city's revised ordinance in 2019. He explained the ordinance was deferred in 2020 and deferred again until the directors could readdress it.
Dingman explained in a memo to City Administrator Carl Geffken after the ordinance was adopted, the city went through a request for proposal process to find a third-party pet licensing vendor, and responding vendors indicated the ordinance as created would make it hard for a licensing program to be effective.
"The chosen vendor recommended changes to the pet licensing ordinance and fee structure, but such changes were not adopted and the pet licensing component has not been implemented or enforced," Dingman said. "It is problematic to have such rules on the books that are not enforced."
The pet license portion of the ordinance states any resident owning or possessing a dog or cat 4 months of age or older in the city must obtain a license for the animal within 60 days of acquiring it. It states the application for a dog or cat pet license must provide the owner's name, proof of rabies vaccination, proof the dog or cat has been microchipped, proof the dog or cat has been spayed or neutered, the owner's address and phone number, the animal's name and a general physical description of it.
The pet license is $10 for the animal's lifetime if it's spayed/neutered and microchipped, or $60 annually if it's not.
Ward 3 Director Lavon Morton proposed creating a pet breeding license to be considered in January. He said it wouldn't have an immediate impact, but over time there would be a reduction in animals due to people not making a profit by breeding them.
"I think that's why we have stray dogs," Morton said. "People buy a puppy for $25, and they raise them until it gets big, eats a lot of food and all of a sudden they move and they just leave it, or they just say we can't afford it anymore, put it out."
The city also needs to put more enforcement on spaying/neutering and microchipping, Morton said.
Directors Andre Good, Kevin Settle and Neal Martin questioned how spaying/neutering and microchipping can be enforced, as irresponsible pet owners could refuse to do it and just abandon their pet if it gets loose.
Morton said it would at least reduce the number of strays because they'd be identified and reunited with responsible pet owners more quickly. He noted there are Facebook groups dedicated to finding the families of stray animals, but it's a challenge because they're not microchipped.
Morton also asked the directors speak with the Police Department and Fort Smith Neighborhood Services to see how the city can best proceed and enforce the issue.
"It seems to me that we just need to make sure and emphasize and reemphasize, we've got to make sure that this is an enforcement priority for us regardless of what ordinances may or may not be on the book," Ward 1 Director Jarred Rego said. "If we saw a substantial uptick in DUIs occurring in town, we would put more immediate resource, manpower, people power on the problem. We wouldn't be running around trying to fool around with the liquor licenses at the bars and things like that. You have to do the things that we need to do to get up to being a baseline, best in class city."
Lois Madden, office manager, pets a dog named Rusty on Friday at Fort Smith Animal Haven. At its meeting Thursday, city directors discussed stray animals in the area, many of which end up being cared for and made available for adoption at the Animal Haven. Go to nwaonline.com/221112Daily/ for today’s photo gallery. (NWA Democrat-Gazette/Hank Layton)